Method and system for targeted advertising based on topical memes

ABSTRACT

A targeted advertising system and method based on memes contained in content sources are disclosed. Content matching keywords-defining topics are identified from content sources and are further processed to extract the memes. Ad networks servicing the content are also identified and their reach for each meme determined. The system and method extract also viral dynamics of the content associated to a meme and use the aggregation of the viral dynamics as a measure of engagement level for the meme. The system and method allow a Marketer to select a meme based on the engagement level and to run an ad campaign against the meme. The advertisements are delivered through an Ad network and inserted at the meme page level when the content hosting the meme is accessed, the Ad network being selected based on its reach.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims benefit from the U.S. provisional application to Christopher NEWTON et al. Ser. No. 61/023,187 filed on Jan. 24, 2008 entitled “Method and System for Targeted Advertising Based on Topical Memes”, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present patent application relates to a computer implemented method and system for targeted advertising, and in particular, to a computer implemented method and system for targeted advertising based on topical memes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Current on-line advertisement targeting methods are either site based, keyword based, contextual, or demographic based.

Site based targeted advertising involves a media buyer deciding to run advertisements, to be also briefly referred to as “Ads”, on a specific property based on their knowledge of the property.

Keyword based targeted advertising involves a media buyer selecting keywords, and Ad networks delivering Ads to web pages, which contain the content including those keywords. This method of serving Ads means that a media buyer's Ad may be seen on thousands of web sites that happen to contain the keywords being used. These methods, although widely used in social media web sites, do not accurately target Ads to the interest of end users, which may not be related to selected keywords but rather to the points of discussions typically called also memes. The rise of social media means that there are millions of conversations going on at any time. Those conversations evolve into multiparty (multi-site) memes. Often these memes can be very beneficial to one or more brands, even if the memes are negative.

Marketers would be very much interested to launch ads targeted against these memes, but today no method or system exists to identify memes amongst the millions of conversations and to target Ads against those memes.

Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for the development of an automated method and system for targeted advertising against memes, which would be more specific to the interests of end users.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is an object of the invention to provide a method and system for targeted advertising based on topical memes, which would cater to the interest of the end users.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for targeting advertisement is disclosed, the method comprising steps of:

(a) selecting a meme;

(b) identifying web pages containing the selected meme;

(c) selecting an advertising network servicing a number of content sources hosting said web pages;

(d) selecting an advertisement assigned to the selected meme;

(e) delivering said selected advertisement to said number of said content sources through said advertising network; and

(g) inserting the selected advertisement into the web pages.

The step of selecting the meme comprises:

-   -   i) retrieving content matching a selected topic;     -   ii) extracting a set of memes from the matching content;     -   iii) associating each meme of the set of memes with its         associated content, wherein each associated content includes a         web page containing said each meme; and     -   iv) storing the set of memes along with their respective         associated content in a database.

Furthermore, the method comprises:

extracting viral dynamics of the content matching the selected topic; and

for said each meme, aggregating the viral dynamics of the content associated with said each meme.

Beneficially, the method further comprises storing aggregate values of the viral dynamics along with their associated meme in a database

In one modification, the step of extracting the set of memes comprises applying a feature extraction algorithm to said matching content.

In another modification step (c) of the method comprises:

-   -   i) extracting a list of advertising networks servicing the         content sources; and     -   ii) selecting, from said list, the advertising network having a         widest reach.

In a further modification step (d) of the method comprises:

-   -   i) setting an advertisement and a deployment threshold for said         advertisement;     -   ii) comparing the deployment threshold with an aggregate value         of viral dynamics associated with the selected meme; and     -   iii) assigning the advertisement to the selected meme provided         the deployment threshold matches the aggregate value of the         viral dynamics associated with the selected meme.

Advantageously, the method further comprises:

maintaining the assigned advertisement on said web pages provided that the aggregate value of the viral dynamics associated with the selected meme is above the deployment threshold; and

removing the selected advertisement from said web pages provided that the aggregate value of the viral dynamics associated with the selected meme is below the deployment threshold.

According to another aspect of the present invention a method of targeting advertisement is disclosed, the method comprising:

(a) selecting a topic;

(b) retrieving content matching the selected topic;

(c) extracting a meme from the matching content; and

(d) running an advertisement campaign against said meme wherein said advertisement campaign is targeted to pages containing the meme

Advantageously, said meme is extracted by applying a feature extraction algorithm to the matching content.

Furthermore, the method comprises extracting viral dynamics of the matching content and aggregating the viral dynamics of a subset content associated with selected meme to determine an aggregate value of viral dynamics associated with the selected meme wherein the subset content is a subset of the matching content.

Beneficially, the method comprises storing the aggregate value of the viral dynamics in time series.

In one modification, the method further comprises terminating the advertisement campaign when said aggregate value of the viral dynamics is below a threshold.

In another modification step (d) of the method comprises:

-   -   i) selecting an advertising network from a list of advertising         networks;     -   ii) selecting an advertisement to run against the selected meme;         and     -   iii) inserting the advertisement into selected pages of said         matching content containing the meme, wherein said advertisement         is delivered through the selected advertising network.

Furthermore the advertising network is selected to maximize a number of pages containing the selected meme that can be reached by the advertisement campaign.

In yet another aspect of the present invention a system for performing a meme-based targeted advertising is disclosed, the system comprising:

a computer, having a processor and a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions for execution by the processor, to form the following modules:

-   -   (a) a first processing module operably connected to one or more         content sources for extracting a meme from content matching a         selected topic, and for associating the meme to a subset content         containing the meme wherein the subset content is a subset of         said content matching the selected topic;     -   (b) a second processing module operably connected to said first         processing module for selecting advertising networks servicing         said content sources; and     -   (c) a third processing module operably connected to said first         and second processing module for delivering advertisements         through the selected advertising networks to web pages         containing the meme and included in the subset content.

The system further comprises a viral dynamics extraction module for extracting viral dynamics of the matching content and aggregating the viral dynamics of the subset content.

Furthermore the system comprises a database stored in a computer readable storage medium for storing aggregate values of the viral dynamics.

Advantageously, the system further comprises an analysis module for analyzing the content against the selected topic defined by a set of keywords and for identifying the content matching the selected topic.

Beneficially, the system further comprises an advertisement matching module for selecting one or more advertisements matching the meme and for comparing a deployment threshold associated with said one or more advertisements with an aggregate value of viral dynamics associated to said meme.

In a further aspect of the present invention, it is disclosed a computer readable medium, comprising a computer code instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a computer, perform the steps of the methods of the present invention.

The present invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments that should be read in light of the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for meme-based targeted advertisement according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an operation of the “Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction” module of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a structure of the “Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction” module of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 illustrates steps of a method for extracting and sorting advertising networks;

FIG. 5 illustrates a sub-system for extracting and sorting the advertising networks, where the method of FIG. 4 is implemented;

FIG. 6 illustrates steps of a method for matching and delivery of advertisements; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a sub-system for Matching and Delivery of advertisements, where the method of FIG. 6 is implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention describe a system for supporting the extraction of memes and associated viral dynamics from content sources, and methods for delivering Ads targeted to selected memes using such a system. With reference to the drawings, in general, and FIGS. 1 to 7, in particular, the method and system of the present invention are disclosed.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for meme-based targeted advertisement according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 comprises a first processing module represented by a Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction Module 110 communicating to content sources 160 via a public network 140. The public network 140 can be the Internet, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a mobile network, or any other network providing connectivity to content sources 160.

Content sources 160 are publicly available sources of media or multimedia content such as web content including text, audio, video, images or any combination thereof. The content sources 160 can include on-line publications by social media communities, such as blogospheres hosting various content, for example, web posts, articles, websites, consumer generated audio and/or videos, consumer generated images or any other content that the system of the present invention can access through the public network 140. Each publication of the content may have one or more pages for text-based content, and/or one or more parts for audio, video or image-based content.

The Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction module 110, also referred to as meme module 110 comprises a hardware platform, for example, a general purpose or specialized computer, including a central processing unit (CPU), and a computer readable medium, (e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc) having instructions stored thereon for execution by the CPU.

The Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction module 110 is provided for extracting and clustering memes, also called topical memes, within topics discussed in the accessed content, and for further storing the clustered topical memes. The Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction module 110 also performs the extraction of viral dynamics associated with the content retrieved from the content sources 160 and further stores the viral dynamics for each piece of content in a database. The meme module 110 will be described in more details hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the meme module 110 is connected to a second processing module represented by an Ad Networks Extraction and Sorting module 130 as well as to a third processing module represented by an Ad Matching and Delivery module 120.

The Ad Networks Extraction and Sorting module 130 comprises a hardware platform, for example, a general purpose or specialized computer, including a central processing unit (CPU), and a computer readable medium, (e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc) having instructions stored thereon for execution by the CPU. The Ad Networks Extraction and Sorting module 130 identifies and sorts advertising networks, for brevity Ad networks, that run advertisements (Ads) on content sources 160 associated with the stored topical memes. Ad networks are typically advertisement delivery networks such as those managed by Google, Yahoo, Doubleclick, ValueClick Media or other known Ad networks, which deliver selected Ads to selected web content or pages according to set criteria. The extraction and sorting module 130 will be described in more detail with regard to FIGS. 4 and 5 below.

The Ad Matching and Delivery module 120 comprises a hardware platform, for example, a general purpose or specialized computer, including a central processing unit (CPU), and a computer readable medium, (e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc) having instructions stored thereon for execution by the CPU. The Ad Matching and Delivery module 120 matches Ads to a selected meme and delivers the Ads through the Ad Network 150 to content sources 160 associated with the selected meme. In one embodiment, the Ad delivery is carried out according to predetermined targeting criteria related, inter alia, to the Ad Network 150 and the content sources 160. The Ad Matching and Delivery module 120 will be described in more detail with regard to FIGS. 6 and 7 below.

Companies are generally interested in running Ads that are specifically placed on content related to specific topics, and optionally, revolving around a particular meme or point of discussion. Accordingly, the system 100 of the embodiment of the invention identifies the content related to a certain topic and extracts respective topical memes. These functions are performed by the “Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction” module 110 shown in FIG. 1.

he system 100, including all modules illustrated in FIG. 1, can be implemented in one or more software modules running on a hardware platform, comprising computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable medium, for example, a general purpose or specialized computer, including a central processing unit (CPU), and a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc. As an example, the modules of the system 100 can be implemented as individual software modules running on the same hardware platform. Alternatively, the modules of the system 100 can be implemented on different hardware platforms, e.g., on different computers connected in a network. Other implementations are possible and are well known to the persons skilled in the art.

The operation of the “Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction” module 110 will now be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart 200 illustrating the operation of the meme module 110 of FIG. 1, including steps of generating topical memes, and extracting viral dynamics of posts associated to the memes. Content sources 160, which are also shown in FIG. 1, represent web sources or other on-line social media communities as described earlier that are accessed by crawl sources at step 250 to retrieve relevant content at step 240. At step 220, the content 240 is analyzed against a topic defined by keywords entered at step 210. By way of example, the keywords defining the topics can be “US Politics” for a topic profile, and “Barack Obama” and/or “Hilary Clinton” as the keywords. Existing topics and associated keywords are stored in a database (not shown), comprising computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as computer memory, CD-ROM, DVD, floppy, tape or other storage medium, and new keywords defining new topics may be inputted through a graphical user interface (not shown) to the system 100 of FIG. 1.

The step 220 analyzes the keywords against the content 240 retrieved from the content sources 260, and step 230 identifies the content that matches the keywords defining selected topic.

At step 270 named “Cluster Memes within Topic”, the content identified at the step 230, is processed to extract points of discussion, or topical memes, associated with the content. The extraction of the memes can be performed using independent feature extraction algorithms that are known in the data analysis field. An example of a feature extraction algorithm that can be used at step 270 is a Non-Negative Matrix Factorization, see, for example an article in Wikipedia entitled “Non-Negative Matrix Factorization” cited in the Information Disclosure Statement for this application. Other algorithms such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) or other algorithms described, e.g., in the book entitled “Programming Collective Intelligence” by Toby Segaran published by O'Reilly Media press in August 2007, which is incorporated herein by reference, could be used to extract topical memes from on-line content.

The topical memes thus extracted are further clustered. In the embodiment of the invention, each extracted topical meme is associated with a subset content, which contain the meme. This subset content is a subset of the content matching the selected topic. At step 280 of the flowchart 200, the clustered topical memes are stored along with their associated subset content in a database stored in a computer readable storage medium (not shown). Following the example of keywords defining topics provided above, the step 270 “Cluster Meme Within Topic” could find the following topical memes: “Barak Obama in the lead in primaries” with 7 more articles related; and “Hillary Clinton disagrees with Obama on key points” with 12 more related articles. These 2 topical memes would then be stored in the database at step 280 along with their respective subsets content.

In the embodiment of the present invention an advertising campaign is run against one or more selected memes according to certain engagement metrics thresholds related to the memes.

Engagement metrics, also to be referred to as viral dynamics, are defined as various social media popularity metrics, such as total meme comment count, unique commenter count, inbound link count, breadth of reply, views, bookmarks, votes, buries, favorites, awards, acceleration, momentum, subscription counts, replies, spoofs, ratings, friends, followers, and updates, etc. Other viral dynamics that can be extracted from the content are listed in the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/174,345 filed Jul. 18, 2008 entitled “Method And System For Determining Topical On-Line Influence Of An Entity”, which is incorporated herein by reference.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the viral dynamics for each post or piece of content are extracted at step 290 of flowchart 200 and, at step 295, the viral dynamics per post are stored in a database (not shown) having computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium.

Referring back to the above example, for the meme of “Barak Obama in the lead in primaries”, each of the 7 related articles are processed, and the viral dynamics or each article are extracted as described above.

FIG. 3 shows a sub-system 300 for implementing the “Meme Clustering and Viral Dynamics Extraction” module 110 of FIG. 1, which operation has been described with regard to FIG. 2 above.

The sub-system 300 includes a Collection Engine module 330 connected to content sources 160 for retrieving content such as articles, posts and multimedia data as described earlier in accordance with FIG. 1. The Collection Engine Module 330 can take the form of a search engine, internet crawler or other collections mechanisms that can be used to access public data and retrieve its content.

An Analysis module 380 is connected to the Collection Engine 330, and to a Topic Database 310 storing keyword-defining topics. The Analysis module 380 performs a Topic versus Content analysis to identify content that matches the topics. In another embodiment, the Analysis module 380 has a graphical user interface to allow a user to enter keywords and/or topics that can be used to identify matching content.

A Meme Clustering module 320 is connected to the Analysis module 380 for receiving the matching content identified by the Analysis module 380. The Meme Clustering module 320 runs feature extraction and clustering algorithms to identify memes or distinct conversation points present in the matching content, and to further cluster the memes along with their associated subset content. The algorithms applied by the clustering module 320 are described above in step 270 of FIG. 2. The memes extracted within a topic are thus grouped along with their associated subset content and stored in a Topical Memes Database 370. In the embodiment, each cluster includes a meme and a subset content in which the meme appears.

The Topic vs Content Analysis Module 380 is also connected to a Viral Dynamics Extraction module 340. The Viral Dynamics Extraction module 340 measures the engagement level for each piece of content as described with respect to step 290 of FIG. 2 and as further described in detail in the co-pending provisional application cited above. The viral dynamics of the content obtained by the module 340 are stored in a viral dynamics database 350.

The sub-system 300 can be implemented as a single software module running on a hardware platform, including computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable medium, for example, a general purpose or specialized computer, including a central processing unit (CPU), and a computer readable medium, e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc. containing instructions for execution by the CPU and performing the functions of the module 380, module 320, module 330 and module 340 described above.

Alternatively, the sub-system 300 can be implemented as a distributed platform, including module 380, module 320, module 330 and module 340 implemented individually, or in selective groupings, for example, as dedicated server computers interconnected by a bus, a local and/or a wide area network using a wired, a wireless medium or a combination thereof. Each module implemented as a server computer includes a processor and computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable medium for execution by the processor and performing the functions of the module. The computer readable medium, includes, a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc.

Each of the database modules 350, 370 and 310 can be of any type of commercial or proprietary database that allows data to be accessed for read and write operations and includes a computer readable medium, e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc., and instructions stored thereon for performing various functions of the database

The method and system of the embodiments of the present invention provide the flexibility of selecting an Ad Network through which an advertising campaign can be run according to certain performance criteria, e.g., its level of reach for a selected meme. The level of reach in this instance refers to the number of social web sites or pages within those websites containing the selected meme and serviced by the Ad network.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart 400 illustrating an Ad network extraction and sorting method as well as the aggregation of the viral dynamics extracted from a set of content related to a meme. The topical memes 470 and the Per Post Viral Dynamics 450 generated previously in the flowchart 200 of FIG. 2 at steps 270 and 290, respectively, are used as inputs to the “Aggregate per Post Dynamics Per Meme” step 410. At step 410, the viral dynamics of all posts or pieces of content within a subset content are aggregated for each corresponding topical meme, and at step 420, the list of topical memes is sorted according to their aggregate value of viral dynamics.

The aggregate value, in this instance, refers to the accumulation of viral dynamics across all the posts or pieces of content within a subset content associated with a topical meme. This accumulation can be done over time during which the viral dynamics for any new post is added to the aggregate value. Alternatively, the aggregation can be normalized against a selected period of time wherein the total count of viral dynamics per post is normalized against the duration of the post. Other methods for measuring the level of engagement over a period of time or for determining the most active meme can as well be adopted, including recording the aggregate values of the viral dynamics of the posts in time series to monitor the evolution of the viral dynamics over a period of time.

At step 430, the Ad networks supporting the delivery of advertisements are identified and extracted. At step 440, the extracted list of Ad networks is sorted and the sorted list is further stored in a database (not shown). The sorted list of Ad networks allows the system and the method of the present invention to determine for each meme, the level of reach of the Ad networks.

Referring back to the above example, the method of flowchart 400 can find that Google is present on 5 of the 7 sites containing the 7 articles related to the meme “Barak Obama in the lead in primaries”, and Yahoo is present only on the 2 remaining sites. In this case running an advertising campaign through the Google network would provide a wider reach than through the Yahoo network assuming that the meme viral dynamics are the same on all sites.

The method of flowchart 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented using a sub-system 500 of FIG. 5, in which processing modules “Per Meme Post Dynamics Aggregation Module” 510 and “Ad Network Extraction/Sorting Module” 520 are interconnected with databases (Topical meme database 570, Viral Dynamics database 550 and Ad networks database 530) to support the Ad networks extraction and sorting features of the embodiment of the present invention.

The Per Meme Post Dynamics Aggregation module 510 receives a topical meme from the Topical Memes database 370, and also receives the viral dynamics associated with the received topical meme stored in the Viral Dynamics database 350 to aggregate the count of viral dynamics per post as described above with regard to step 410 of FIG. 4. This aggregation allows the system to determine the most active memes. This information is used by an Ad campaigner/marketer to select a meme against which he can run an advertising campaign. The Ad Networks Extraction and Sorting module 520, in the present embodiment, retrieves the identity of Ad networks providers from the content associated to the topical memes stored in the database 370 and sorts them according to their level of reach. This extraction and sorting, as described previously, can be used by an Ad campaigner to select the Ad Network that would provide a wider reach. The sorted list of Ad Networks is stored in a database 530. The Ad Networks Database 530 can be of any type of commercial or proprietary database that allows data to be accessed for read and write operations and includes a computer readable medium, e.g., a memory and other storage devices such as CD, DVD, hard disk drive, etc., and instructions stored thereon for performing various functions of the database FIG. 6 shows an Ad Matching and Delivery flowchart 600 illustrating a method of performing targeting and delivery of meme page-level advertisement. Meme page-level advertisement targeting refers to the targeting of an advertisement to a page containing the selected meme. In this embodiment, an Ad campaigner selects a topical meme at step 660 from a set of Topical memes 670, followed by an automatic retrieval of related articles or posts at step 650. In addition, the Ad campaigner creates a list of Ads at step 610, and at step 620, performs an Ad-to-Meme mapping, which results in the selection of Ads to be run against the topical meme selected at step 660.

In one embodiment, each Ad is associated with a deployment threshold, which determines when the Ad can be used in an Ad campaign, or withdrawn from the Ad campaign. In this embodiment, an Ad is maintained in an Ad campaign as long as the aggregate value of the viral dynamics associated with the meme is within a specified boundary or above the deployment threshold for the Ad. The Ad would be withdrawn from advertising, when the viral dynamics falls out of the boundary or below the deployment threshold.

At step 640, the selected Ads of step 620 are assigned to specific Ad Networks provided from the list of Ads Networks 630 extracted from the flowchart 400 of FIG. 4. At step 680, a meme page-level targeting is performed to target Ads to web pages containing the selected meme. The Ads are thus delivered through the Ad Network to an end user viewing the targeted web pages.

The Ad Matching and Delivery method of FIG. 6 can be implemented using a sub-system 700 of FIG. 7. In the sub-system 700, an Ad-to-Meme Matching module 760 is provided to match Ads stored in the Ads database 710 to the selected meme from the topical meme database 370. As an example, a meme slamming a specific feature of the new Apple iPhone is beneficial to Nokia, and they might want to run an advertisement in the specific content that is part of the meme. In this case, an Ad of Nokia touting the benefits of the Nokia alternative to that specific feature of iPhone would then be mapped to the meme.

The Topical Meme database 370 is connected to a Meme site/page identification module 720, which identifies the page where the meme is present from the content associated with the meme. This identification of the meme page level allows the delivery of Ads at the meme page level using the Ad Targeting and Delivery module 730. The Ad Targeting and Delivery module 730 is provided to interface the Ad Network 750. This module 730 sends the selected Ads through the Ad network 750 to the website 740 hosting content for insertion into the meme page when the content is accessed.

The embodiments of the present invention provides numerous advantages by allowing marketers to target end users according to their interest reflected by the memes buried in the content they access and that can only be unearthed with a fine-tune analysis as set forth in the present invention.

Often these memes can be very beneficial to one or more brands, even if the meme is negative. For instance as stated earlier, a meme slamming the new Apple iPhone is beneficial to Nokia, and Nokia might want to run an advertisement in the specific content that is part of the meme. Nokia's Ad may specifically talk to the problems noted in the iPhone meme, and also talk about the benefits of the alternative provided by Nokia. Such an Ad would be useless shown on another content, which is not related to this meme.

The embodiments of the present invention can keep track of the number of memes launching every day, and millions of sources that they can erupt from. By using the methods of the embodiments of the present invention, someone can research all the sites and content involved in a selected meme, find all the pages containing the meme, and run a dynamic Ad campaign against the pages according to a comparison between the viral dynamics of the content and the deployment threshold of the Ad.

Although the invention has been illustrated with the reference to specific embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made which clearly fall within the scope of the invention. The invention is intended to be protected broadly within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 

1. A method for targeting advertisement, comprising steps of: (a) selecting a meme; (b) identifying web pages containing the selected meme; (c) selecting an advertising network servicing a number of content sources hosting said web pages; (d) selecting an advertisement assigned to the selected meme; (e) delivering said selected advertisement to said number of said content sources through said advertising network; and (g) inserting the selected advertisement into the web pages.
 2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the step (a) of selecting the meme comprises: i) retrieving content matching a selected topic; ii) extracting a set of memes from the matching content; iii) associating each meme of the set of memes with its associated content, wherein each associated content includes a web page containing said each meme; and iv) storing the set of memes along with their respective associated content in a database.
 3. The method as described in claim 2, further comprising: extracting viral dynamics of the content matching the selected topic; and for said each meme, aggregating the viral dynamics of the content associated with said each meme.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing aggregate values of the viral dynamics along with their associated meme in a database.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step (ii) of extracting the set of memes comprises applying a feature extraction algorithm to said matching content.
 6. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the step (c) comprises: i) extracting a list of advertising networks servicing the content sources; and ii) selecting from said list the advertising network, having a widest reach.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (d) comprises: i) setting an advertisement and a deployment threshold for said advertisement; ii) comparing the deployment threshold with an aggregate value of viral dynamics associated with the selected meme; and iii) assigning the advertisement to the selected meme provided the deployment threshold matches the aggregate value of the viral dynamics associated with the selected meme.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: maintaining the assigned advertisement on said web pages provided that the aggregate value of the viral dynamics associated with the selected meme is above the deployment threshold; and removing the selected advertisement from said web pages provided that the aggregate value of the viral dynamics associated with the selected meme is below the deployment threshold.
 9. A method of targeting advertisement, comprising: (a) selecting a topic; (b) retrieving content matching the selected topic; (c) extracting a meme from the matching content; and (d) running an advertisement campaign against said meme wherein said advertisement campaign is targeted to pages containing the meme
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said meme is extracted by applying a feature extraction algorithm to the matching content.
 11. The method of claim 9, further comprising extracting viral dynamics of the matching content and aggregating the viral dynamics of a subset content associated with selected meme to determine an aggregate value of viral dynamics associated with the selected meme wherein the subset content is a subset of the matching content.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the aggregate value of the viral dynamics in time series.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising terminating the advertisement campaign when said aggregate value of the viral dynamics is below a threshold.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein the step (d) comprises: i) selecting an advertising network from a list of advertising networks; ii) selecting an advertisement to run against the selected meme; and iii) inserting the advertisement into selected pages of said matching content containing the meme, wherein said advertisement is delivered through the selected advertising network.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the advertising network is selected to maximize a number of pages containing the selected meme that can be reached by the advertisement campaign.
 16. A system for performing a meme-based targeted advertising, comprising: a computer, having a processor and a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions for execution by the processor, to form the following modules: (a) a first processing module operably connected to one or more content sources for extracting a meme from content matching a selected topic, and for associating the meme to a subset content containing the meme wherein the subset content is a subset of said content matching the selected topic; (b) a second processing module operably connected to said first processing module for selecting advertising networks servicing said content sources; and (c) a third processing module operably connected to said first and second processing module for delivering advertisements through the selected advertising networks to web pages containing the meme and included in the subset content.
 17. The system as described in claim 16, further comprising a viral dynamics extraction module for extracting viral dynamics of the matching content and aggregating the viral dynamics of the subset content.
 18. The system as described in claim 17, further comprising a database stored in a computer readable storage medium for storing aggregate values of the viral dynamics.
 19. The system as described in claim 16, further comprising an analysis module for analyzing the content against the selected topic defined by a set of keywords and for identifying the content matching the selected topic.
 20. The system as described in claim 16 further comprising an advertisement matching module for selecting one or more advertisements matching the meme and for comparing a deployment threshold associated with said one or more advertisements with an aggregate value of viral dynamics associated to said meme.
 21. A computer readable medium, comprising a computer code instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a computer, perform the steps of the method of claim
 1. 